by Ted Berg and Paul White, USA TODAY Sports

by Ted Berg and Paul White, USA TODAY Sports

At Houston Astros spring training in Kissimmee, Fla., on Monday morning, special instructor Roger Clemens delivered a passionate speech about focus to the pitchers in camp. Then he issued a sober statement in response to the apparent suicide of country singer Mindy McCready.

"I had heard over time that she was trying to get peace and direction in her life," Clemens' statement read. "The few times that I had met her and her manager/agent they were extremely nice."

In 2008, the New York Daily News reported Clemens and McCready had a decade-long love affair that started when the singer was 15, a romance that included trips on Clemens' private plane and visits to Yankee Stadium to see him pitch. McCready, who struggled with addiction and mental illness at various times throughout her 37-year life, did not refute the newspaper's report and said she had "known Roger Clemens for a long time."

At that time, Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin described McCready as "a longtime family friend of Roger Clemens and the Clemens family" but added that "at no time did Roger engage in any kind of inappropriate or improper relationship with her."

McCready later confirmed details of the affair to Inside Edition but said her relationship with Clemens did not become sexual until after she was 18.